History Main / NoCommunitiesWereHarmed

* ''The Desert Of The Tartars (1976)'': While the army the protagonist Drogo serves in is unnamed, it is very obviously meant to be the one of the [[UsefulNotes/TheSOundOfMartialMusic three Austro-Hungarian armies]] before UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne, as they're dressed in Austro-Hungarian uniforms (complete with the royal cypher of Emperor Franz Joseph I), have Austro-Hungarian ranks and wield Austro-Hungarian weaponry. Nevertheless, the army clearly deviates from its real-life counterpart in several instances: The Double-Eagle banner is notably fictionalised, a painting portrays Franz Joseph with a very ahistorical ''full'' beard, and most obviously: The Austro-Hungarian Empire never had a Persian-esque desert border, much less one that was infested with Tartar raiders (which is more reminiscent of several remote near-eastern regions of UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia rather than anything else). This is inkeeping with the semi-mythical allegorical nature of its source material.

* ''VideoGame/{{Stray}}'' is set in an UndergroundCity named ''Walled City 99'', which is based on [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kowloon_Walled_City Kowloon Walled City]], a former slum district in Hong Kong, which had tightly packed, haphazardly built houses and virtually no sunlight at the street level. The robots' writing system looks vaguely like Asian characters, adding more to the similarities.

* The settings of the ''Film/{{Pokemon}}'' movies are based on real locations: Altomare is Venice, Forina is [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wulingyuan Wulingyuan]], Larousse City is Vancouver, Cameran Palace is [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuschwanstein_Castle Neuschwanstein Castle]], Samaya is Rome, Alamos Town is Barcelona, and Michina is Athens.

*** The Film/{{Superman}} movies, on the other hand, go whole-hog and present Metropolis as being UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity — subway, Times Square, World Trade Center, [[strike:Calgary Tower]] and all.

* In ''TabletopGame/UrbanJungle'', cities in the United States are Bellegarde (New Orleans, with elements of other Southern cities), San Dorado (LA), Shaysen City (New York, complete with Lady of Freedom statue), Sunshine City (Miami), and Tricogha (Chicago, with elements of other Midwestern cities). ''Occult Horror'' adds Kingstown, described as "inspired by Providence in Rhode Island" ... which, given [[CosmicHorrorStory the nature of the supplement]] actually makes it a stand-in for its fellow Providence-inspired city [[Literature/CthulhuMythos Arkham, Mass]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Yakuza}}'' doesn't take this approach to the cities themselves, but the Districts they take place in. Kamurocho and Sotenbori are mainstays of the series, based off the Kabukicho and Dotenbori districts in Toyko and Osaka respectively. In recent entries the main setting has moved to Isezaki Ijincho, based on Yokohama's Isezakichō. Numerous one-off examples from Yakuza 3 and 5 include Downtown Ryukyu (Makishi) in Okinawa, Nagasugai (Nakasu) in Fukuoka, Tsukimino (Susukino) in Hokkaido, and Kineicho (Sakae) in Nagoya.

* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'':

* ''The Desert Of The Tartars (1976)'': While the army the protagonist Drogo serves in is unnamed, it is very obviously meant to be the one of the [[UsefulNotes/TheSOundOfMartialMusic three Austro-Hungarian armies]] before UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne, as they're dressed in Austro-Hungarian uniforms (complete with the royal cypher of Emperor Franz Joseph I), have Austro-Hungarian ranks and wield Austro-Hungarian weaponry. Nevertheless, the army clearly deviates from its real-life counterpart in several instances: The Double-Eagle banner is notably fictionalised, a painting portrays Franz Joseph with a very ahistorical ''full'' beard, and most obviously: The Austro-Hungarian Empire never had a Persian-esque desert border, much less one that was infested with Tartar raiders (which is more reminiscent of several remote near-eastern regions of UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia rather than anything else). This is inkeeping with the semi-mythical allegorical nature of its source material.

* The ''Literature/HaruhiSuzumiya'' series is set in the author's hometown of Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, with the serial numbers filed off: Kanji in actual place names (or their readings) are changed -- the Uegahara Pirates of Kwansei Gakuin University become the ''Kami''gahara Pirates, for instance -- and the name of the actual town is never directly mentioned ("Kitaguchi Station" is ''Nishinomiya'' Kitaguchi Station, and "North High" is Nishinomiya-Kita High School). This is made especially blatant in the anime, where Kyoto Animation saw fit to recreate the ''actual locations'' in and around the city, including undisguised shots of passing Hankyu Railway trains, and the skylines of nearby Osaka and Kobe. Since Nishinomiya is located in the heart of the [[KansaiDialect Kansai]] [[TheIdiotFromOsaka region]] it would run the risk of being stereotyped, but Creator/KyoAni's attention to detail actually gives it an "everytown" quality. What really takes the cake is a scene in the anime version of "Endless Eight", which shows a photorealistic establishing shot of the Kobe waterfront. Sure, they don't come out and say it, but they're getting really, really obvious.

* ''Webcomic/{{Misfile}}'''s main setting, the town of Tempest is modelled after a number of small suburbs of Pittsfield, MA and has all the characteristics of them, being around 8,000 in population, near Mount Greylock, has an airport within an hour's drive, near I-90, and a decent sized High School.

* The ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'' series is set in the author's hometown of Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, with the serial numbers filed off: Kanji in actual place names (or their readings) are changed -- the Uegahara Pirates of Kwansei Gakuin University become the ''Kami''gahara Pirates, for instance -- and the name of the actual town is never directly mentioned ("Kitaguchi Station" is ''Nishinomiya'' Kitaguchi Station, and "North High" is Nishinomiya-Kita High School). This is made especially blatant in the anime, where Kyoto Animation saw fit to recreate the ''actual locations'' in and around the city, including undisguised shots of passing Hankyu Railway trains, and the skylines of nearby Osaka and Kobe. Since Nishinomiya is located in the heart of the [[KansaiDialect Kansai]] [[TheIdiotFromOsaka region]] it would run the risk of being stereotyped, but Creator/KyoAni's attention to detail actually gives it an "everytown" quality. What really takes the cake is a scene in the anime version of "Endless Eight", which shows a photorealistic establishing shot of the Kobe waterfront. Sure, they don't come out and say it, but they're getting really, really obvious.

* The settings of the ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' movies are based on real locations: Altomare is Venice, Forina is [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wulingyuan Wulingyuan]], Larousse City is Vancouver, Cameran Palace is [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuschwanstein_Castle Neuschwanstein Castle]], Samaya is Rome, Alamos Town is Barcelona, and Michina is Athens.

* ''VideoGame/{{Yakuza}}'' takes place in Kamurocho, a red-light district in Tokyo which is [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabukichō,_Tokyo Kabukicho]] with the serial numbers filed off. Sotenbori in the game's version of Osaka is [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dōtonbori Dotonbori]] in much the same way.

* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad:'' Langley Falls, Virginia, is based on Langley, Virginia, where the CIA is actually located, with a name twist inspired by the nearby community of Great Falls.

* The ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' example under Video Games is parodied in [[http://lparchive.org/Grand-Theft-Auto-San-Andreas-(Screenshot)/Update%206/ this LP]], since Radio/GTARadio uses the names of real communities. "Yeah, that lawsuit . . . Got told they can't use real names and places or they be encouraging gang violence... stupid, as if people don't know they mean Ganton when they sing about Compton."[[note]]Compton is the real community, Ganton is the game's stand-in.[[/note]]

* The ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'' series is set in the author's hometown of Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, with the serial numbers filed off: Kanji in actual place names (or their readings) are changed -- the Uegahara Pirates of Kwansei Gakuin University become the ''Kami''gahara Pirates, for instance -- and the name of the actual town is never directly mentioned ("Kitaguchi Station" is ''Nishinomiya'' Kitaguchi Station, and "North High" is Nishinomiya-Kita High School). This is made especially blatant in the anime, where Kyoto Animation saw fit to recreate the ''actual locations'' in and around the city, including undisguised shots of passing Hankyu Railway trains, and the skylines of nearby Osaka and Kobe. Since Nishinomiya is located in the heart of the [[KansaiDialect Kansai]] [[TheIdiotFromOsaka region]] it would run the risk of being stereotyped, but Creator/KyoAni's attention to detail actually gives it an "everytown" quality.
** What really takes the cake is a scene in the anime version of "Endless Eight", which shows a photorealistic establishing shot of the Kobe waterfront. Sure, they don't come out and say it, but they're getting really, really obvious.

** The city of Hikarizaka[[note]]not explicitly named as such in Canon, but implied by the names of the school and the electric company, etc.[[/note]] in ''VisualNovel/{{Clannad}}'' is also largely based on the Tokyo suburbs of Mizuho and Hamura, with a bit of Osaka thrown in. Try looking on Google Street View sometime.

* The location in which ''Literature/CrossAndPoppy'' is set is obvious if you read the clues. (And if you can't, there's a fake Ordnance Survey map on the back cover with only the names changed and the orientation flipped.) [[spoiler: It's pretty clearly Teffont Magna, Teffont Evias, and the country 'round.]] This continues throughout the ensuing series of the ''Literature/VillageTales'' novels, including the "side-trips" to Shropshire, Cheshire, Cumbria, and Perthshire.
** The work is discreet with place names. Roads and topography and rail stations … not so much.

** The street where Joy lives is based on neighborhoods in Detroit, Michigan.
** The street where Brooke lives is based on Pullman Avenue in Rochester, New York.

** Some of the Bloomfield streets were inspired by Rochester, New York; Cleveland, Ohio; New Orleans, Louisiana; Oakland, California; and Atlanta, Georgia.

* "Paradise Falls" in ''WesternAnimation/{{Up}}'' strongly resemble Angel Falls, right down to both being in Venezuela.
* "San Fransokyo" in ''WesternAnimation/BigHero6'' is named as a portmanteau of San Francisco and Tokyo, and combines cultural features of each. However, the city's streets were developed from a digital map of San Francisco with a few Tokyo-like elements and fictional transit lines overlaid. For example, Lucky Cat Cafe is modeled closely to a specific building at Masonic Street in the Haight-Asbury district whose tenants include a cafe; however, the street's trees were replaced with cherry blossoms in the digital model. ''WesternAnimation/BigHero6TheSeries'' implies that much of the Tokyo elements were added after the Great Catastrophe (the 1906 earthquake).

* In ''Film/BatmanBegins'' and ''Film/TheDarkKnight'', Chris Nolan hardly bothers to disguise Chicago as Gotham City. His Caped Crusader broods on the Sears Tower, races through the underground tunnels of Lower Wacker Drive, rides the Batpod through the Metra Electric station at Randolph Street (you can even see street signage for the Pedway), and fights it out with the Joker on a famous stretch of [=LaSalle=] Street. The bank robbery that opens ''The Dark Knight'' was filmed at the old central post office on Van Buren Street, and Wayne Enterprises is headquartered in the Chicago Board of Trade Building. However, the flying-overhead view used in ''Film/BatmanBegins'' is the canon layout of Gotham.

* George Alec Effinger's trilogy ''When Gravity Fails / A Fire in the Sun / The Exile Kiss'' is set in an unnamed city that seems to be in North Africa, but those who knew him say it's New Orleans.

* ''VideoGame/{{inFAMOUS}}'' is set in Empire City, which is blatantly based on New York City.
** The sequel ''VideoGame/{{inFAMOUS 2}}'' takes place in New Marais, which is a stand-in for New Orleans.
** Surprisingly averted in ''VideoGame/{{inFAMOUS Second Son}}'' however, which explicitly takes place in the real city of Seattle.

* ''{{VideoGame/Mafia}}'' follows in GTA's footsteps. The first game is in Lost Heaven and the second in Empire Bay, fairly obvious stand-ins for New York City, with maybe one or two features from LA or Boston to throw you off. ''VideoGame/MafiaIII'' takes place in New Bordeaux, which is unapologetically, blatantly New Orleans.

** Great Lakes City, the setting of ''WesternAnimation/TheCasagrandes'', serves as the franchise's stand-in of Chicago. It's located about the exact same place as Chicago within Illinois, as clarified by [[https://keyframemagazine.org/2019/10/29/culture-comedy/ an article on Keyframe magazine]] and its stated distance from Royal Woods (which is the same distance between Chicago and Royal Oak).

** The main city in which ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'' is set, Royal Woods, is based on creator Creator/ChrisSavino's hometown of Royal Oak, Michigan. Royal Woods has a similar name and shares the same state of location and general building style to Royal Oak, though it does deviate from the latter a bit with the inclusion of a number of places that bear no resemblance to Royal Oak or other cities.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': [[WhereTheHellIsSpringfield Springfield]] is largely based on creator Creator/MattGroening's hometown of Portland, Oregon, with elements of Olympia, WA, where he attended college. (The city square with its statue of Jebediah Springfield, to cite one example, is highly reminiscent of Olympia's Sylvester Park.)

** More specifically, according to [[Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} The Other Wiki]], [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isola_(fictional_city) "Calm's Point" is Brooklyn, "Majesta" is Queens, "Riverhead" is the Bronx, and "Bethtown" Staten Island]]. "Diamondback", a poor and dangerous area of Isola with a mainly African-American population, is Harlem. Then there's the "Harb" (Hudson) and "Dix" (East) rivers, and the similarly unnamed "next state" (New Jersey). George M. Dove's unofficial 1985 companion to the series, ''The Boys from Grover Avenue'', analyzes the geography of [=McBain=]'s "Imaginary City" and describes it as NYC rotated ninety degrees clockwise, so that north becomes east, east south, etc.

* ''VideoGame/MarioParty'' ''[[CapcomSequelStagnation 7]]'' had a cruise ship theme, and the boards were set in Grand Canal (Venice, Italy), Pagoda Peak (China), Pyramid Park (Egypt), [[BigApplesauce Neon Heights]] (New York City), and Windmillville (The Netherlands).

** Furthermore, in ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption2'', Ambarino is the Rocky Mountains, New Hanover is South Dakota in the west and Kentucky/Appalachia in the east, and Lemoyne is Louisiana. Lemoyne even has its own New Orleans called "Saint Denis".